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Topic: How to count mites the fast way (Read 4774 times)

Take 1- 2 dl of bees from the brood nest and put them in a jar with a mesh lid on that is Small enough to keep the bees in and big enough so that the mites can fall out.

Take a few spoons of dry icing powder and put into the jar of bees and shake well so all the bees are covered in the icing sugar and are White.

After a few minutes shake the jar vigorously.

The sugar covered bees start to clean themselves, also it cogs the mites feet so they cant walk and grip on to the bees.

Shake the icing sugar into a fine mesh sieve, then wash the sugar away with water and you will bee left with the Varroa mite that were on the bees.

This method i also used to determen apistan resistance in mites : put some bees in a jar with a piece of apistan for 24hrs, shake out the dead mites Count them, then do the sugar treatment and Count the dead mite to determen if they are resistant to the apistan or other mite treatments.

I do a sugar roll in much the same way. I like to put the sugar I collect after shaking the bees in a zip lock sandwich bag and add a little water. The wet sugar turns opaque and the mites are clearly visible and countable in the baggie.

I use two jars with the screened lids and after collecting and rolling the bees, I place the jar and bees in the shade and go on to the next hive. When the bees are collected and sugar tolled and coated, I set that jar in the shade and go back and collect the sugar from the first jar. Repeat as you go

In Sweden we call it a book scorpion, they like living amongst paper. they used to bee a commom dweller in beehives amongst 30 to 40 other different kind of bugs and insects that some times lived along side the bees.

Chelifer cancroides its name in Latin

"A pseudoscorpion, (also known as a false scorpion or book scorpion), is an arachnid belonging to the order Pseudoscorpionida, also known as Pseudoscorpiones or Chelonethida.

Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans since they prey on clothes moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice, ants, mites, and small flies. They are small and inoffensive, and are rarely seen due to their size."

.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

I used to get them in the jar, add sugar and set them in the shade of the hive while I completed the inspection. The seminar that was sponsored by OSU said to let them girls sit in the sun to bet a better count.

"Tell me and I'll forget,show me and I may remember,involve me and I'll understand" Chinese Proverb

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways." John F. KennedyFranklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/